I HAVE THE POWER
“I have the Power to lay down my life
and to take it up again.” Jn 10:17-18
These awesome words were spoken by Jesus during his earthly life. They may pose a challenge to the world that refuses to believe in his Resurrection, but they hold no difficulty for those who believe that he is indeed himself Divine. After all, if God can “raise up, even from dead stones, children to Abraham” how much more can he raise up from the dead his own Sacred Body in which he had lived for thirty years?
What does however pose a challenge to the faith, even of those who believe in the Incarnation, is that part of the doctrine of the resurrection which proclaims that each and every one of us will rise up in the flesh to enter into our eternal destiny. True enough, God has told us that ‘no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has it entered into the mind of man to consider, what things God has prepared for those who love him’ yet, because of this doctrine of the resurrection of the body, we know that whatever life is like in heaven it is a thing of flesh and blood as well as of spirit. Jesus himself went to great lengths to impress this on us. When he returned to visit his apostles after his resurrection he appeared, not as a shining figure as at the Transfiguration, but as such an ordinary figure as could be mistaken for a simple stranger on the road. He said: ‘See, it is myself! I am no ghost! Touch me, feel me! Have you got anything to eat?’ and they gave him a piece of broiled fish which he immediately consumed in their presence.
That our life in heaven will be a thing of flesh and blood as well as of spirit makes heaven so much more real for us; it makes God himself so much more real for us; tangible, visible, perceptible in some wonderful way. Our whole being, body as well as soul, is just made for communion with God. Every fibre of our being finds its ultimate meaning and fulfilment in Him. ‘The Body’,
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